About

About the Catching Instructor: Joe Janish

Background

  • ABCA Division 1 All-American Catcher, Northeast Region, 1992
  • All-MAAC Catcher, 1990, 1992
  • All-NJ Team 1990, 1991, 1992
  • Guest Instructor at College World Series (Omaha), 1992
  • 4-year starting catcher, St. Peter’s College (Jersey City, NJ)
  • Assistant Coach, St. Peter’s College, 1992-1995
  • St. Peter’s College Hall of Fame
  • 3-year starting varsity catcher, Wayne Hills High School (NJ)
  • High School All-State, All-County, All-Area, and All-League selection
  • Wayne Hills High School Hall of Fame
  • Guest Instructor, ProPlayer Academy (Hawthorne, NJ)
  • 16 Years’ experience coaching catchers

About the Catching Lessons

I work with a small number of dedicated players throughout the year, to ensure that each individual receives a high level of attention and concentration. It is important that a player be serious about baseball, and serious about improving his/her game. Sessions are ended immediately if a player doesn’t have his/her “heart” in the lessons and drills. I don’t do this for the money — I do it to help serious players get to the next level.

You can read more about the structure and types of lessons offered here.

Catching Philosophy

The catching skills taught are a mixture of “old school” methods and modern techniques based on biomechanics.

Over my 30 years as a catcher and coach, I’ve seen, heard, read, and tried every catching approach out there, and gathered information from conversations with Major League catchers, highly respected college and professional coaches, sports doctors, trainers, and biomechanics experts. The culmination of all this collected knowledge goes into my teaching programs.

Also, while there are specific fundamentals that all catchers must learn to fulfill his/her potential, I also tailor drills and lessons based on the individual’s athletic ability, skillset, and desired goal. In other words, I don’t believe there’s only “one way” to do everything — in addition to teaching the fundamentals, it’s important to “Celebrate the Individual”, a phrase I borrow from Cal and Billy Ripken of Ripken Baseball.